Alexander Wang

Coming off his collaboration this year with the Gap, Alexander Wang has had all-American sportswear on the brain. His resort collection was filled with denim and khaki, and he ran with a sporty theme once again for Spring. This time, Wang's subject was that most popular red-white-and-blue pursuit: football. You felt the pregame excitement of those Friday-night lights as you walked into his show space at the massive Pier 94. He drew a crowd that few young designers can command: It girls galore, important European editors, and even photographers Terry Richardson, Inez van Lamsweerde, and Vinoodh Matadin.

"We want to create clothes that are timeless and classic," Wang said a few days before his show. "Our girl wants investment pieces." Those are mature words coming from downtown fashion's pied piper—but Wang's take on "timeless" means a classic gray sweatshirt fused with a corset, or cut short and boxy and worn over lace-up caramel leather shorts. The look here was varsity pinup, as if a bevy of cool but wayward high-school girls had raided the locker room armed with a pair of scissors. Ribbed athletic socks with sliced-out backs were tucked into tasseled wedgie loafers and rugged, zippered sandal boots. There was a wink-nudge cleverness to "tighty whitey" dresses and a bag that looks like a deflated football, though other bits of fun in this vein will be too costumey to appear very often outside of magazine shoots.

The investment elements were, mostly, hooded and utilitarian outerwear pieced together from a variety of fabrics, including nylon and army canvas; a double-layer leather jacket worn by Angela Lindvall was another MVP. All in all, Wang's cheering section will be plenty pleased. But, remembering how fully realized his last collection was, you somehow kept expecting something more—particularly in this space, and for this crowd.